Victory
by Pyrinsomniac
Summary: SPOILERS for Chapters 437 & 438. Twoshot, rating for a couple of curses. She's finally done it.
1. Naruto

SPOILERS for Naruto Part II, Chapter 437.

X~

_"Because I... love you..."_

The first time anyone tells Naruto they love him- the first time anyone actually says the words, even if he's felt them- is when he's sixteen years old, pinned to a battlefield, about to be dragged off to a painful death.

The first person to tell Naruto they love him is a girl he's barely spoken to in the years that he's known her, a girl with strange white eyes and an uncanny habit of turning red at his mere presence.

_doesn't make sense_

She'd come soaring in behind Pain, Byakugan bulging vessels around those gifted eyes, dirt- smudged and fierce. It was surreal; it had been weeks since Naruto had seen anyone from his home, and nevermind fighting him: _talking _to Pain was such a screwy experience that the sight of someone else, let alone one of his friends, was jarring. Talking to Pain drew one into a depressing void, one with only dim light and trainwreck reason.

_her?_

And to have it be _her_ who came sailing to his defense... well. Naruto couldn't really be blamed for his stunned- bunny face and slow- moving brain upon being presented with such a sight.

_always quiet, hunched shoulders, stuttering and shy... said she shouldn't even be a shinobi, all kindness and sweet, gentle nature... _

Skid of sandals on hard earth and suddenly she was there and Pain wasn't.

"Reinforcements, eh...?" Pain mused, not seeming at all offput by the new arrival. He didn't have any reason to be.

"I won't let you lay another finger on Naruto!" she declared, all swinging black hair and pale, too- determined eyes.

_"What're you doing here?! Get out of here! You're no match-"_

"I know." she cut in, and if the quiet agreement was like her the interruption certainly wasn't.

It was enough to silence him for a moment.

"I'm just being selfish," she continued.

But Naruto was never one to stay silent for long. _"What're you talking about? What're you doing here? It's dangerous!"_

Long hair flowed in the wind, as Sakura's own shortened mane once had in the Forest of Death. "I'm here of my own free will."

_what on earth did she mean-?_

"I used to always cry and give up... I nearly went the wrong way..."

The sliver of her face that he can see is wearing a gentle smile, and somehow she makes it fit with the battleready Byakugan in her right eye.

"But you... you showed me the right way..."

There's an uncomfortable feeling growing in his chest; his instincts are screaming, this is bad, why is she here, why isn't she running?

"I was always chasing you, wanting to catch up to you... I just wanted to walk with you... I just wanted to be with you."

_for once it doesn't make him think of Sasuke, the way almost everything does. this feels weirdly familiar but __**not**__, at the same time, and his head's trying to catch up_

"You changed me! Your smile saved me! So I'm not afraid to die protecting you!"

Pain does not look amused, or moved. His face is set and now Naruto's instincts are standing up and screaming-

_"Because I... love you..."_

Her hands and eyes are set, and even if he can't see it she's never been more beautiful.

_knocked for a loop_

With a succinct "Ha!" she's charging one of the most powerful shinobi in the world.

She's fast and fierce and deadly but this is Pain, and with two swipes and two cries-

"Juho Soshiken!"

"Shinra Tensei," apathetic. An outstretched hand, a fluttering, dark cape with red clouds-

A squeak; pained, tiny and high- pitched...

Ground cracking, dust flying, and one downed kunoichi.

The Leader of the Akatsuki looms over the destruction, dark steel in his hand, down like a disapproving thumb.

His ringed eyes are set.

_White hot panic_

_"STOP!"_

It's a horrible noise. It's a horrible noise because it's not her voice or breathing or laughter and the first person to ever tell him she loves him is gone gone gone, just like too many others, just like all the others...

_shock, eyes wide and blue like the sky shouldn't be, can't breathe, can't move, can't think-_

He hates that dead voice. "This is just like... how my parents were killed by Konoha ninjas, right before my eyes."

He hates being lectured by damn people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about. "Love breeds sacrifice, which breeds hatred."

_It certainly is now._

Red rage suffuses his vision, and there's an enemy right in front of him that **needs** to be **put down**.

He can't take it anymore. There's red and there's rage and there's a scream as it explodes out of him. There's fire and blood, and good, clean pain ripping through him.

"Then you can know Pain."

There's a hellish red glow and four tails wafting in a nonexistent breeze.

"Do you hate me?" he's stupid enough to ask.

"Do you really think people can understand each other like this?" he's stupid enough to press.

"That's it," he cajoles, "... but my Pain is greater than yours." he's stupid enough, arrogant enough, to assume.

There's an inhuman roar and six tails flaming in the air, fire, blood and bone.

This pain will raze the world to ash.

X~

I don't know Naruto's age for sure, but I know he's still a teenager and 16 is one of the marker birthdays in my culture, so it seemed good enough. :shrug: And I'm sorry about the kinda awkward ending, but this just sort of flowed as I was rereading the chapter for the umpteenth time and that was the only thing to pop into my head.

Here's hoping 438 is just as good, or even better. If Kishimoto pulls this off (and doesn't kill her,) I will forgive him for all the previous Epic Suckage of Part II. Even Itachi.


	2. Hinata

Holding herself back has always been Hinata's biggest problem. It's an irony too giant for her to appreciate that right now, holding herself back is the hardest thing she's ever done.

It's the story of her life, standing on the sidelines, useless, unable to do anything but watch.

And for most of their lives, since they were children, she's been standing back watching him struggle. Watching him fall down, fail again and again... only to rise every time.

He always got up. He didn't sit there and cry like she did, didn't flagellate himself- only pushed himself to be better. To practice until he got it right. He used his frustration, rage and self- loathing to drive him on.

She doesn't think about what would have happened to her if he hadn't been there. It never occurs to her to wonder what she would've done if one day he hadn't gotten up, either, if he'd let it all get the better of him- because never giving up and never going back on his word is who he is. It's _what_ he is, no matter what's inside him, where all that terrifying chakra came from in his match against the prodigy of her clan.

Naruto changes people because he knows their darkness, and he's emerged from it. He's a guiding light.

He's _her_ guiding light, her sunshine since the first time she'd seen him- running through the street like the urchin he was, yelling at the top of his lungs, leaving chaos in his wake. She'd never seen someone act so indecently in all her life, and it fascinated her.

So she watched him. She saw his struggles, took heart in his triumphs, drew strength from him.

He always gets up. Always.

But he's not getting up now. He's pinned, and Pain's talking, and while Hinata can't hear them she _can_ read lips. Not as well as Neji, of course, because she does nothing as well as Neji- but well enough. Well enough to know she disagrees.

Naruto will never be the smartest person in someone's acquaintance, particularly if that person knows Nara Shikamaru. Not even Hinata could make that argument. But if there's anyone who can make people understand one another- through his fists, at times- it's Uzumaki Naruto.

Uzumaki Naruto, who's known the darkness, who's lived in and fought and beaten it, from the day of his birth. Uzumaki Naruto, who can turn enemies to friends, and never gives up a friend after he's made one. Uzumaki Naruto, who loves, cherishes, and protects the village that made his childhood hell; Uzumaki Naruto, who will always defend his hard- won friends, his precious people, no matter what the cost.

Uzumaki Naruto has the heart of a Hokage, and Hinata has never doubted him. The most important job of the Hokage is not paperwork, or even being the strongest ninja of the village that he is sworn to protect.

The most important job, the sacred duty of the Hokage, is to be a leader worth following.

Hinata knows there is no one more suited than Uzumaki Naruto.

But in order to always get up, he has to fall. He's pinned. Pain is the Leader of the Akatsuki, and while she's not cleared to know everything that that means, she knows as much as she needs to. She knows he's after Naruto, watched his strength decimate her home and bring the one she admires most to his face in the dirt.

It feels like her entire life has distilled to this moment. Her eyes have never been clearer, her mind has never been sharper, and Hinata has never been simultaneously more and less afraid.

It's not even really a question of what she's going to do. It's a question of how long she can wait, of whether he'll manage to drag himself to his feet in time the way he always has before.

Her heightened vision picks up Naruto's wince, Pain's movement.

The last frog standing is blasted back- the last possible protector for him is struck down.

"It's time for us to go."

Pain's hand moves.

In the end, this is what it comes down to. All those years of watching, striving, hoping... there is a split- second in which to act, no time for thought. No time and no one to hold her back, except herself.

It was never a question of what she was going to do: never a question, because of him. This is who Hinata is.

Her body throws itself between Naruto and danger.

Everyone is taken aback, even some distant corner of Hinata's own mind. But the rest is clear.

"I won't let you lay another finger on Naruto!"

Her entire life, everything she is, everything she's gone through, all her doubts and fears- it all comes down to this. No matter what happens, _this_ is Hinata's victory- being here now, able to stand on her own two feet and use her own voice and be the person she's always wanted to be... the person she's sweated, bled, and struggled for most of her life to be.

She's going to die. She knows it, knew it even as she felt the air moving across her face.

This- if ever anything was worth dying for, this is it. She would die for Naruto, a thousand times over. And the moment she stepped onto the floor at their first Chuunin Exam, the moment she decided to face Neji and Naruto gave her the courage to follow through- that was the moment she confirmed, to herself and everyone else, that being the person she wanted to be was a goal worth dying for.

She's been prepared for this moment: by her clan, the Academy, her field experience. Ninja deal in death. Hinata is smart enough to know that death is the least of what a kunoichi has to fear. And while she values her life, she is more than willing to sacrifice it, especially for this.

She's always been more lady than kunoichi, and for once it serves her well. The specter of death grants Hinata grace, and dignity she's never felt. She will die well.

Naruto, of course, doesn't quite feel the same. He tries to warn her away.

"I know."

He doesn't understand. How could he? Naruto is like life itself.

"I'm just being selfish," she tells him.

He still doesn't get it.

Pain is gracious- or maybe just curious enough- to grant her this. Hinata doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth. "I'm here of my own free will."

At least he's listening. It's all she ever could have asked, and more than she expected. "I used to always cry and give up... I nearly went the wrong way. But you... you showed me the right way."

She can feel his dread behind her, and regrets doing this to him, but it's the one thing she's ever wanted for herself. This once, at the end of her life, Hinata is going to _take_ it.

"I was always chasing you, wanting to catch up to you... I just wanted to walk with you..."

That same distant corner of her head is surprised at how calm she is, that she has the courage for this. "I wanted to be with you..."

This is who Hinata is.

"You changed me! Your smile saved me! So I'm not afraid to die protecting you!"

Death looks at her.

"Because I.... love you."

She can't note his utter shock behind her. She's leaving him behind, for once.

Hinata meets her death head- on. One, two...

"Juho Soshiken!"

She barely hears the answering, "Shinra Tensei!"

It hurts.

She's gifted with the sound of his voice, one last time.

It hurts.

She lingers. If she were capable of it, she might have wondered about that. She'd expected to be instantly and unequivocally cut down, insofar as she'd expected anything at all... but it hurts, in an oddly detached sort of way, and she can't form real _thought_. She's drifting, not quite gone but not there either, and there are impressions of something great and terrible.

And as always, he is on her mind, even when it's all but faded out. _Na... Naruto..._

The fight's getting more and more removed, and she can't tell if it's because she's going somewhere else, or he is.

Doesn't really matter, either way.

Hinata protects what she loves. This is who she wanted to be, who she became, what she is. This is Hinata's victory- even if nobody else will be able to tell, or understand.

It resonates down to her bones, past the pain.


End file.
